I spent the afternoon thinning out lupins from my planters. I realized that if I let them continue, they would be overcrowded and wouldn’t grow properly.
Transplanting lupins is difficult because they have long but delicate tap roots and damaging them would kill them. After the thinning out process, I was able to get 11 new pots of lupin seedlings.
Assuming they all survive, they will go to new homes of friends and other gardeners.
One of my side gardening plants, this plant never received the attention of my other plants.
This plant started off as a supermarket green onion cutting. It grew over the spring and summer last year, survived Hurricane Dorian, and I left it outside for the winter with nothing done to the pot (didn’t even cover it up). I was convinced the cold weather would kill the plant (as it had killed my other potted plants) but somehow in the spring it started growing new shoots and now I developing flower bulbs. I’m hoping for some nice flowers and maybe a nice bulb at the end of this year so I can harvest my one onion.
On a side note: I had another onion plant in a much larger pot, thinking that one would survive the winter because of the extra soil insulation. Unfortunately that one died (no new shoots and when I pulled it up, the roots were mush).
My Phalaenopsis orchid grows oddly. After 9 flowers, it paused growing new flowers, now there’s a bunch of new flower buds as the first batch of flowers start to die off. If I’m lucky, I’ll get at least another 6 flowers.
Once again my phalaenopsis orchid is in bloom. This plant is about six years old and seems to be very happy.
For care, I water it about once a week, and mist it almost daily. It is placed in a north facing window in my kitchen along with some other plants and I fertilize it occasionally.
I don’t prune it and I let it’s air roots run wild. In the photo you can even see the flower stem from last year that still hasn’t died off yet.
In an effort to reduce the number of plants in my home and keep my English ivy from being overgrown, I’ve decided to sell a few of my plants. I replanted a few English ivy cuttings and a few of my hens and chicks succulents.
I listed them on Facebook marketplace and Kijiji and sales have been decent. I got a bidding war on my succulents because apparently I’ve been listing them too low a price. The purpose of selling my plants is not for profit, however pots and soils aren’t cheap and I wanted to break even. Also, this isn’t a sustainable business since plants don’t grow very quickly and I don’t think the demand of plants is enough to make this sustainable.
My succulents has attracted more interest than my English ivy, but apparently people like succulents because of their shape and looks.
I still have a few plants and I hope to have them all sold within the next week.
Today, I harvested my wheat. After 5 months of growing wheat in a planter on my balcony, it was time to harvest.
I didn’t need one of those big combines, since there really wasn’t that much wheat. Now that it’s harvested, photos and selfies taken with my wheat. It is time to let the soil rest.
I compared my amateur grown wheat with professionally grown wheat and found it was still smaller than than what was harvested from a real farm. I used a lot of fertilizer on my wheat, so my partial shade balcony isn’t as ideal as fields which receive full sun.
I’m pretty happy that I successfully grew wheat and have a deeper appreciation for our farmers and all the hard work they do to provide us with food. #FarmingIsHard
I think my wheat is ready for harvest soon, the wheat heads are showing some leaning. I germinated my wheat in March and sowed them in the planter on my patio in April. At first, I thought the wheat wouldn’t do well since it was still rather cold outside, but as the sunlight and warmth increased over the summer, the wheat has grown rather well. It was nice when the wheat heads started developing and now that the grass has yellowed, it looks like some pretty good wheat. I will probably harvest within the next week, if the weather cooperates.
Am I the only person who finds gardening stressful?
You have to ensure all your plants get enough water but not too much, then there are always pests to deal with, both indoors and outdoors (spider mites, thrips, aphids, fungus gnats, etc.), then miscellaneous issues such as fertilizers.
It’s almost a full time job, checking on the plants daily, finding new problems, researching the solutions, buying solutions at the garden centre.
I do enjoy the flowers and the plants, but it’s a lot of work and stress to get to that point.
Outdoor Plants:
Lupin (lupinus), grown from seed or acquired from various garden centres. The majority of my plants are lupins. I probably had a dozen lupins on my balcony this year. About half of them bloomed this year (at least one grown from seed bloomed this year).
English ivy (hedera helix), acquired from Superstore Garden Centre. My outdoor ivy, it hasn’t grown very fast and I’ll probably move it indoors during the autumn.
Mustard (brassica): grown from seed (acquired from supermarket). Inspired by the Parable of the Mustard Seed, I wanted to know how big a mustard plant could grow. The seedlings grew rather slowly at first, but once transplanted outdoors, it started growing very quickly and reached a height of about three feet. The plants are about six months old now. The seed pods aren’t yet ready, but in late spring, it had very nice small yellow flowers.
Wheat (triticum), grown from seed (acquired from Bulk Barn). This is my second year growing wheat. I started growing wheat because it is a grass and it grows relatively quickly. I started germinating my wheat this year at the end of winter and once spring arrived I transplanted them outside. The wheat stalks are starting to grow yellow now, so soon I will have mature wheat.
Bleeding Hearts (lamprocapnos spectabilis / dicentra spectabilis), acquired from Kent Garden Centre. It had a shaky start as the branches were rather long and leggy, but the plant has grown bushier and stronger. As of late July, there are still some flowers in bloom and the plant hasn’t died down yet.
Oxeye Daisy (leucanthemum vulgare), acquired from Superstore Garden Centre. It has grown very well and reached peak bloom in late July.
King Henry violas (viola cornuta), acquired from Superstore Garden Centre. They’ve grown well this year and are still blooming. I have three plants in different colours: purple, yellow, and orange.
Green onions (allium), acquired from supermarket. After the green parts were used for cooking, I put the white part into soil and let them grow. I started them inside during the winter but transplanted them outside when it started getting warmer.
Mint (mentha), acquired from supermarket, grown from cuttings. This is my second year growing mint. Most of the mint I grew last year didn’t survive the winter, but that was because I didn’t properly winterize my planter.
Papyrus (cyperus papyrus), acquired from a Bloom Garden Centre. As I’ve always had an interest in Ancient Egypt, It grows very fast and I’ve had to repot them twice already (I didn’t know how fast they grew and the the small pot didn’t provide enough root support for the tall plants). It likes very wet soil.
Oriental poppy (papaver orientale), acquired from Kent Garden Centre. I like poppies, but this plant hasn’t flowered this year yet.
Indoor Plants:
Hens and chicks, acquired from Sobeys, I’ve had this succulent plant for at least three years now, and I’ve split the plant numerous times. Now to get enough motivation to sell my individual plants.
Phalaenopsis orchid (moth orchid), acquired from Sobeys. One of my oldest plants. At least fours years old. This plant has bloomed three times. It likes to be misted and kept humid.
Parlour Palm, acquired from Halifax Seed Company. This plant hasn’t grown much since acquisition. It had some issues with spider mites earlier this year, but I think the infestation is now over after being treated with insecticidal soap.
Aloe vera, acquired from Walmart, there has been some growth with this plant, but like other succulents, it doesn’t grow very fast.
Mass cane (corn plant) (dracaena fragrans), acquired from Home Depot, one of the original plants that I started growing. There are two plants in my collection. They’ve each bloomed once and one isn’t super healthy right now. I usually put them outside during the summer and return them inside during the winter.
Lucky bamboo (dracaena sanderiana), acquired from Sobeys. They’ve been repotted several times. I’m currently using a shallow porcelain bowl instead of the glass vase because I found that the clear glass caused too much algae growth.
Coffee (coffea arabica), acquired from Sobeys. An impulse buy because I think coffee is neat. I have repotted it twice and split it once since acquisition.
Dracaena marginata, acquired from IKEA. It has gotten bushier since I got it, but hasn’t shown much growth.
English ivy (hedera helix), acquired from Sobeys. A steady grower, it grows very easily. I’ve had to prune it multiple times to keep its growth in check. I’ve taken the cuttings and grown new plants.
Yucca, acquired from Home Depot. Another one of my original plants. It was very happy early in its life when I over-watered it, but it hasn’t had any major issues since I cut back on the amount of water it receives.
Basil (ocimum basilicum), acquired from Sobeys or grown from seed. I have two pots of basil. One was acquired last year and one was acquired this year. The one last year suffered from mealy bugs and I wasn’t sure it was going to survive the winter. The second pot was infested by thrips this year and hasn’t returned to its former glory yet. Aside from plucking basil flowers, I haven’t harvested many basil leaves this year yet.
Peas (Pisum sativum). A short lived annual. I grew peas last year and harvested a few peas. This year, I only grew one plant and only got two pea pods.
This is my second year gardening. It all started when I fell in love with lupins (since I’m from Nova Scotia) and I wanted to grow them away from home (I was in Quebec at the time). I’ve learned a lot since then.
This year, I’ve been growing lupins (way too many lupins), mustard (because I wanted to know how big a mustard plant really grew from reading the Parable of the Mustard Seed), wheat (yes, the grain), basil, violas, mint, English ivy, coffee, and a bunch of other miscellaneous plants.
I grow a rather eclectic assortment of plants, not because they are necessarily easy plants, but plants I find interesting. I started growing wheat because, as a grass, I knew they grew quickly, and being a millennial, I am impatient.
I live in a condo, so I don’t have a lot of space to grow plants, plus, my balcony faces east, so I don’t get full sun, which limits what plants I can grow. There are some plants that I am growing that aren’t growing super well because they don’t get enough sun. They’re surviving but aren’t super happy.
When I get a bit more time, I might write a post about each of my plants, my success, failures, and lessons learned.
Halifax Condo Gardener 